This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for A STORAGE CHAMBER WITH PELTIER ELEMENT earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office and there duly assigned Ser. No. 22074/2001 by that Office.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage box using a thermoelement and, more particularly, to a storage box using a thermoelement, designed to be selectively operated in a cool-storage mode or a hot-storage mode by changing the polarity of the electric current applied to the thermoelement as desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, conventional refrigerators are designed to feed cool air from the evaporator of its refrigeration cycle into storage compartments, that is, a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment defined inside a cabinet, thus keeping food cool to maintain freshness of the food for a desired lengthy period of time. However, the conventional refrigerators are limited in their use since they only perform a cool-storage function within the freezer and refrigerator compartments. In addition, the conventional refrigerators must have a plurality of elements, such as a condenser, an evaporator and a compressor, for fabricating the refrigeration cycle.
In an effort to overcome such problems of the conventional refrigerators, a storage box designed to be selectively operated in a cool-storage mode or a hot-storage mode using a thermoelement has been proposed and used. Such a conventional storage box includes a cabinet defining a storage compartment, a door hinged to the cabinet for closing or opening the storage compartment, and a thermoelement mounted to a predetermined portion of the cabinet.
The thermoelement is a thermal converter using the Peltier effect. That is, the thermoelement is composed of two dissimilar metal plates such that the two plates are jointed together at two junctions, and the electrons of the element absorb heat energy from a heat source at one junction to perform a cooling action, and evolve heat energy at the other junction to a heat sink to perform a heat dissipating action when a DC voltage is applied to the element.
When the thermoelement is arranged such that a junction thereof is positioned within a target compartment of a storage box, it is possible to cool or heat the target compartment as desired by controlling the polarity of the DC voltage applied to the element. That is, when a DC voltage is applied to the thermoelement such that heat is dissipated from the junction of the element into the target compartment to increase the temperature of the compartment, the storage box is operated as a hot-storage box.
However, when the polarity of the DC voltage applied to the thermoelement is changed, the junction absorbs heat from air inside the target compartment to cool the interior of the compartment. In such a case, the storage box is used as a cool-storage box. Therefore, the storage box having such a thermoelement can be operated in a hot-storage mode or a cool-storage mode by controlling the polarity of the DC voltage applied to the element.
However, the conventional storage box having such a thermoelement is undesirably limited in its use to the cool-storage mode and the hot-storage mode, but cannot perform a frozen-storage mode. It is thus impossible for such conventional storage boxes to meet a variety of requirements of consumers.
When it is desired to keep the temperature of the target compartment of a storage box at about xe2x88x9215xc2x0 C. in the case of an environmental temperature of about 30xc2x0 C., the practical temperature difference between the two junctions of the thermoelement is calculated to about 62xc2x0 C. since additional heat generated from operation of heat exchanging units provided at the two junctions must be added to the arithmetic temperature difference between the target compartment and the environmental temperature. The cooling operational effect of the thermoelement is intrinsically reduced in inverse proportion to the temperature difference between the two junctions of the thermoelement. Therefore, it is almost impossible for the conventional primary cooling systems, using one thermoelement, to keep the temperature of a target storage compartment at about xe2x88x9215xc2x0 C. in the case of an environmental temperature of about 30xc2x0 C.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a storage box using a thermoelement, of which the storage compartment has a small-sized sub-storage unit having its own thermoelement, and so a frozen-storage mode operation is performed by the sub-storage unit during a cool-storage mode operation of the storage compartment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage box using a thermoelement, of which the small-sized sub-storage unit is designed to be removable from the storage compartment of the storage box, and which thus allows a user to use the sub-storage unit independently from the storage box in, for example, a car.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a storage box using a thermoelement, including: a cabinet defining a storage compartment therein; a main thermoelement installed in a wall of the cabinet so as to allow the storage compartment to act as a cool-storage compartment or a hot-storage compartment; and a sub-storage unit installed in the storage compartment, and having a sub-thermoelement so as to be operated in a frozen-storage mode through a multi-stage cooling operation during a cool-storage mode operation of the storage compartment.
The sub-storage unit includes: a body defining a sub-storage compartment therein and having the sub-thermoelement in its wall; a door mounted to the body so as to open or close the sub-storage compartment; and a heat dissipating unit provided at the heat dissipating junction of the sub-thermoelement.
A heat exchanging panel is arranged in the storage compartment of the cabinet to come into contact with the heat absorbing junction of the sub-thermoelement, while a fan is arranged in the body so as to allow the heat dissipating unit to evolve heat to air of the storage compartment of the cabinet.
A means for detachably installing the body of the sub-storage unit within the storage compartment of the cabinet is provided at the junction of the body and the inner wall of the storage compartment of the cabinet. The detachably installing means includes: a rail horizontally provided on the inner surface of a storage compartment""s sidewall of the cabinet; and a channel provided on the outer surface of the body of the sub-storage unit for engaging with the rail.
A projection is provided on the channel, while a notch is formed on the rail to seat the projection therein when the sub-storage unit is installed in the storage compartment of the cabinet.
In the storage box, a chamber may be provided in the storage compartment of the cabinet for seating the sub-storage unit therein.